Requiem: Delirium Trilogy, Book 3

This exciting finale to Lauren Olive's New York Times best-selling Delirium trilogy is a riveting blend of nonstop action and forbidden romance in a dystopian United States. Now an active member of the resistance, Lena has transformed. The nascent rebellion that was underway in Pandemonium has ignited into an all-out revolution in Requiem, and Lena is at the center of the fight. After rescuing Julian from a death sentence, Lena and her friends fled to the Wilds. But the Wilds are no longer a safe haven.

I think I formed a really high standard for this series based off the first two books and this third book just didn't live up to that standard.

The story was still incredibly exciting and well performed. The author writes beautifully and shared some really interesting thoughts through this last book. I think I was just let down a little by how everything ended; with the story and with the characters.

I'll stop there so as to not give anything away but I still highly recommend this series, just wanted a tiny bit more from this book.

Me Before You: A Novel

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life - steady boyfriend, close family - who has never been farther afield than her tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex-Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life - big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel - and now he's pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy - but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected.

One Plus One: A Novel

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math-whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can't afford to pay for. That's Jess' life in a nutshell - until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess' knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages...maybe ever.

I liked this book pretty well, the ending got a bit too 'mushy' (for lack of a better term) for me. It's not that I don't appreciate a good romance but perhaps the author just didn't make it believable enough for me.

Other than that, it was well written and well performed. I liked it enough to read another of the author's books - Me Before You.

The Martian

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?"

Fated: Alex Verus Series, Book 1

Alex Verus is part of a world hidden in plain sight, running a magic shop in London. And while Alex's own powers aren't as showy as some mages, he does have the advantage of foreseeing the possible future-allowing him to pull off operations that have a million-to-one-chance of success. But when Alex is approached by multiple factions to crack open a relic from a long-ago mage war, he knows that whatever's inside must be beyond powerful.

I did not enjoy this book much, the story was relatively boring despite the author's attempts to make it exciting. The writing at times seemed almost...misogynistic? But perhaps that was just the author's portrayal of female characters in the book.

Regardless, it was hard for me to get through this book, I normally enjoy fantasies a lot, but this story seemed almost silly.

The narrator was also not a great performer, aside from the main character's voice, his voices for other characters fell flat and added to the 'silliness' factor.

The Cuckoo's Calling

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: his sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

While I'm usually not one to pick up a mystery novel, I really enjoyed this one. It took me several chapters to really get into it but the writing is what kept me going. The author made you feel like you were there experiencing exactly what the characters were feeling, seeing, hearing.

As for the mystery itself, it was interesting but occasionally things 'fell into place' rather conveniently, but perhaps that's just my inexperience with mystery novels :)

Written in My Own Heart's Blood: Outlander, Book 8

Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to 1743 Scotland, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for a young soldier, James Fraser.

Life After Life: A Novel

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison

With a career, a boyfriend, and a loving family, Piper Kerman barely resembles the reckless young woman who delivered a suitcase of drug money 10 years ago. But that past has caught up with her. Convicted and sentenced to 15 months at the infamous federal correctional facility in Danbury, Connecticut, the well-heeled Smith College alumna is now inmate #11187-424 - one of the millions of women who disappear "down the rabbit hole" of the American penal system.

After having watched the first season of Orange Is The New Black on Netflix, this book was VERY tame in comparison. But I guess I had to expect that ;)

I really enjoyed Kerman's honesty throughout the story and her perspective on what it means to "do time". But I most of all appreciated that the memoir was riddled with stats about prison life in America - you could really tell she did her research when writing this book. She tells her own story but we also get an idea of what it was like for other prisoners in her same camp, and what it must be like for prisoners in various facilities across the nation.

Overall I enjoyed the book, it was different from what I expected it to be, but it gave me some perspective and I love when a book does that!

Prodigy: A Legend Novel, Book 2

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: The Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request: June and Day must assassinate the new Elector. It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long. But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning?

This book, while not quite as good as the first, was still very interesting and kept me listening. The characters fall into some interesting situations and the ending chapter was very eventful. But, aside from a last minute turn in the story, I almost think this book could have concluded the series, as story sort of culminates to a nice place so I'm not sure there's a lot of room to grow...

But I guess because of that I'm interested to see what the last book has in store!

Legend

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect.

This book has your typical post-disaster dystopian society with a totalitarian regime keeping people down and weeding out the weak. What I appreciated most about this book is that it was well written and thought out. There weren't any blaring holes in the story or ridiculous jumps to conclusions that I've experienced with other YA dystopian novels.

The characters maybe aren't as developed as I'd like them to be but the dual protagonists might be the cause of that. I liked how the narration split between the two, and the story kept me listening all day with its unexpected turns and surprises.

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